In late 1991 I moved out to San Francisco, along with a bunch of other fresh-faced veterans of the collegiate a cappella scene, to form a professional a cappella band called the House Jacks.
We got day jobs and got our act together, literally and figuratively. Got an agent. Started opening for big-name acts. Did colleges and clubs, corporate shows, jingles, a cappella competitions, small tours. Amassed a fan club that grew to 10,000 people. In late 1993 we quit our jobs and started doing it full-time.
We then released our first CD,
Naked Noise, a 10-course menu of musical styles -- rock, funk, pop, R&B, grunge, rap, salsa -- done entirely with the human voice. It pioneered what is known in a cappella circles as the "vocal band" movement -- pop/rock/funk bands without instruments.
In February 1994 we hit the road on a massive four-month tour, taking us from one end of the country to the other, and back. That year, we did over 150 shows.
At the tour's end, we rolled into New York City and started shopping the CD around to the major record labels. RCA offered us a contract, touching off a heady little bidding war, with interest from Atlantic, Epic, etc.
We signed with Warner Bros.' Tommy Boy Records, home of De La Soul, Coolio, House of Pain, Queen Latifah, and so on. We went into the studio, working with a great bunch of producers from the worlds of pop, rock, and R&B.
Unfortunately (but understandably), the label did not see much commercial potential in an a rock/funk band without instruments. They made it clear that they wanted us to be a boy band, a la the Backstreet Boys, who were huge in Europe and were just about to take the US by storm.
We delivered our finished album in April 1996. The label sat on it for a year. It became clear that they didn't know what to do with us. We got the album back from them, replaced some of the boy-band stuff, and self-released our long-awaited second album,
Funkwich, in late 1997.
(
Funkwich is a more stylistically unified album than
Naked Noise, focusing on funk and R&B. It's more listenable, and the production values are much higher. Basically, it's bumpin'. Plus it's got "Kashmir.")
I left the band shortly thereafter. It was an incredible 6 years. I got to perform all over the country for hundreds of thousands of people, and shared the stage with so many incredible artists: James Brown, Ray Charles, LL Cool J, Run-DMC, The Neville Brothers, The Pointer Sisters, Crosby Stills & Nash, and many, many more. We even got to perform for President Clinton.
The band is still going; they called up replacements for me and other departing members. They signed with a German label in the late '90s and have toured often in Germany, Austria, and Italy, garnering enthusiastic crowds, and have released a live album, Drive, based on their German shows.
You can hear excerpts from my work with the Jacks on the
Hear My Stuff page. For more info on the Jacks, check out their
Web site.
